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belief in the communion of saints should ever excite us to pureness of heart and holiness of living. At the same time, we should be constantly reminded of our bounden duty to render heartiest gratitude to Almighty God for so obvious and rich a blessing. We should likewise be excited to the deepest love, reverence, and devotion for the saints, whether living, departed, or crowned. In the natural order, nearness of relationship implies hearty affection. Yet amongst relations no communion which is temporal can be compared with that which is spiritual and eternal amongst the grace-won children of the Crucified. And our love will naturally and properly grow deeper for those of the One Family of Christ who, having passed from our sight and knowledge, are safe in the keeping of the Most High, whether they be waiting for the eternal rest and perpetual peace of His heavenly mansions, or, walking in white raiment, are already crowding the steps of the great white throne, purified from every-even the smallest-stain, sanctified and

crowned.

CHAPTER II.

THE RATIONALE OF PRAYERS FOR THE DEPARTED.

A

PIOUS and reverent care for the dead is one of

the common instincts of humanity. Nations which have believed in a state of existence after death -and this has been the conviction of all save the most debased and barbarous-have likewise shown a reverence for the departed, not only in sentiment but in deed. Burials have almost invariably taken place with respect for the bodies of those whose souls have passed away; and funeral rites have outwardly expressed this sincere conviction in no unmistakable manner. The most ancient custom amongst primitive

*

* Vide Homer, Odyss., xi. 72; Herodotus, lib. v. 92; Horace, Odes, i. 23; Plin., Epistles, vii. 27; Virgil, En. iii. 300; Euripides, Hecuba, 536; Ovid, Fast., ii. 566. As regards the care of the ancient Greeks for their dead, vide Euripides, Hippolyto, v. 1458; Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. xiii. c. 1; Virg., Æneid, ix. v. 486;

Homer, Iliad, T. v. 211; Æneid, vi. v. 417; Eurip., Troad., v. 446; Ovid, Metamorph., lib. iv. v. 154; Eurip., Alcest., v. 608; Troad. v. 256; Ovid, Metamorph., lib. viii. v. 528; Virg., Eneid, iv. v. 672; Euripid., Alcest., v. 430; Æneid, xi. v. 187; Odyss. . v. 71; Iliad, 4. v.

252.

nations was to bury the dead out of sight;* though some embalmed the bodies of the departed, while others committed them to the funeral pyre. The practice of interment, however, was almost universal in the East. Moreover, both amongst the Egyptians and Ethiopians this custom obtained, as it did also in the case of the Jews-a fact evident from the records of their history in Holy Scripture.

Now in this care for the departed many have traced a dim and uncertain belief, on the part of those who have exercised it, both in the immortality of the soul and in the resurrection of the flesh. They have looked upon the separation of soul and body as only taking place for a time, not for ever; and have held a faith, founded on a true and almost universal tradition, that in a distant future soul and body should be reunited. This tradition, coming down from our

Vide Cicero, De Legibus, lib. ii. ; Terentius, Andrea, act i. scene 1; Martial, lib. iv. epig. lxxv.

†The mythology of the Egyptians taught that there was a specific region for the departed, corresponding to the Greek Hades and the Latin Tartarus, which was termed "Amenti." Here was a tribunal to determine the final destiny of departed souls-here their transmigration was authoritatively arranged. The Egyptians divided the whole world into three

zones-the Zone of the Earth, or that of trial; the Zone of the Air, or that of temporal punishment; and the Zone of Everlasting Repose. Some souls, after having passed their time of probation in the Zone of the Earth, were sent to the Zone of temporal punishment to suffer for a while, either as a prelude to their return to the Zone of Probation, to animate a new body, or as a preparation for their removal to the Zone of Everlasting Rest. All this is set forth

first parents, as might have been expected, was more carefully preserved, and less corrupted, by the children of Abraham than by any other race. It had been cherished by the patriarchs, as the words of Job testify, accepted by the leaders and teachers of the people of Israel; until in the later age of the Evangelical prophets it developed and expanded into a definite system of dogma, which necessitated a corresponding practice on the part of those who accepted the same. And this practice is found current amongst the Jews from the time of the Maccabees unto the present day. From our Blessed Saviour and His apostles it received neither criticism nor condemnation; while several exhortations and injunctions found in the writings of the apostles, not only indirectly support the practice, but in certain instances appear very pointedly to enjoin it. That all the most ancient liturgies contain prayers for the departed will, in due course, be shown. And if, as may be reasonably assumed, the practice of praying for the dead existed in the Jewish Church, immediately before the advent of our Blessed Saviour, and had come down from times

with singular lucidity in a work by Cardinal Angelo Mai, entitled "Catalogo de Papiri Vaticani," &c., published at Rome in 1825. In the

fifth illustration at the end of the book is a curious and striking representation of the judgment of a soul.

long anterior, it will at once be seen how entirely impossible it is for those who repudiate and neglect the practice, or regard it as an innovation, to account of its universal acceptance by the whole family of Christians in the earliest ages of the church, or to specify when such an innovation first became current, and when the legitimate successors of the apostles first formally sanctioned it. The fact that, both in East and West, the church universal has constantly enjoined the duty, is a consideration of the highest value and of the greatest weight.

Furthermore, the doctrine that in the state immediately after death the souls of the faithful are being prepared for the mansions of heaven, is interwoven with some of the most important and fundamental articles of the Christian faith. For those souls which, summoned to the judgment-bar of Christ, have been found to have departed this life in unrepented, deadly sin, there is nothing but an eternal alienation from God Almighty and all that is good. "They that have done evil [shall go] into everlasting fire." * On the other hand, amongst those who, by the favour and grace of the Most High, have succeeded in making their calling and election sure, how many

* Creed of St. Athanasius.

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